One of Us Will Be Forgotten
by ZeeIsTrans
Summary: This is my first RVB fanfiction, so sorry if it's not great. MAJOR SPOILERS for Season 13. Summary: The reds and blues had their victory, but it sure as Hell didn't feel like one after what they found out. DISCONTINUED
1. Chapter 1

The reds and blues made it out. They did it. They caused the Staff of Charon to blow up with a shit ton of sticky detonators. It took a lot of effort, but they did it. Hargrove was dead and so were all of his asshole soldiers. Once everyone was off the ship, they had detonated the bombs and it was all over. Sarge had yelled in triumph, "Take that, dirtbags!" While Grif just shot his gun in the air. Carolina and Wash were more calm, smiling inside their helmets at the happiness of their friends. Donut and Doc high fived, but their joy was short lived, as O'Malley had appeared and pushed Donut away, declaring his famous words, "You fool!" In his gruff accent. Lopez had yelled something in Spanish that no one understood, but nonetheless, Lopez was happy.

Tucker was extremely impressed with himself, calling himself a badass, which made everyone just roll their eyes.

It wasn't long before Tucker realized something was wrong.

"Church, we did it!" He yelled. No reply.

"Church!" He repeated. Still nothing.

Tucker then realized that his mind was absent of Epsilon's calculations and numbers that were usually there. What was going on?

"Epsilon! Come out, we did it." Carolina yelled, taking off her helmet. It probably wasn't the best idea though, considering Chorus' oxygen was different from Earth's.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as Epsilon finally made an appearance, but something wasn't right. They all realized this as they heard Delta's voice.

"Recording…" He stated.

"Hey guys... if you're hearing this then it means you did it. You won." Epsilon spoke.

"What the Hell?" Tucker half-yelled.

"You kicked the shit out of Hargrove's forces. I knew you could. But this is my last stop. See, when I came into this world, I was really just a collection of somebody else's memories. But with your help, these memories... they-they took form! They became _my_ voice, _my_ personality. And, after a while, I... I began to make brand new memories of my own. All of these things are what make me who I am... but they're also holding me back." The recording continued.

"I can't run this suit as Epsilon, but if I erase my memories, if I... deconstruct myself, the fragments I'll leave behind will have the strength to get you through this. I believe that."

"No." Carolina whispered.

"I wish that there was another way. But I'm leaving this message, as well as others, in the hopes that you'll understand why I have to go this time…" He continued.

"No." Carolina said louder. This was not happening. She couldn't lose Epsilon. No.

"Heh, it was actually _Doyle_ who made me realize something that I've never thought of before. There are so many stories where some brave hero decides to give their life to save the day, and because of their sacrifice, the good guys win, the survivors all cheer, and everybody lives happily ever after." He started again.

"But the hero... never gets to see that ending. They'll never know if their sacrifice actually made a difference. They'll never know if the day was really saved. In the end, they just have to have faith." The recording ended with the sound of glass breaking and Epsilon disappearing into blue squares.

Everyone was silent. No one knew what to say. None of it seemed real, Church didn't just say goodbye in a recording. They did not just find out that their AI friend had sacrificed himself for them. But it was all true, and it hurt like a bitch.


	2. Chapter 2

Carolina was the first to move. She lashed out. "Godammit, Church! Why the fuck would you do this?!" She screamed, pushing on her head with both hands. This really was happening. Her best friend was gone, and there was nothing she could do this time. It was over. She felt exactly how she'd felt after Project Freelancer was gone. After York had died, after Maine was taken over by the bastard of an AI, Sigma. After her entire family destroyed each other. And that was what the Freelancers were to her; family. Church was family, too. He was her brother, even though it was in a fucked up way. Now, he was gone.

Wash walked closer to Carolina, reaching to put his hand on her shoulder. She moved away, not wanting any comfort. Right now, she needed to be angry. She had to vent. She stormed off, Wash turning to follow her, but Tucker stopping him.

"Let her be. She needs time." Tucker whispered. He couldn't talk louder, because if he did that, he knew he would break down. Even though him and Church's relationship was a bit bumpy, he'd grown closer to him in the past month that they'd spent on Chorus. He cared a lot for Church, and it never occurred to him that he might lose him some day. Well, until now.

Wash turned away from where Carolina ran, and walked closer to the group. He wanted to say something encouraging to them, to make them feel better, but he was speechless. There was nothing to say. At least, not right now. Right now, they needed to grieve. Wash walked closer to Caboose, who was still, like he had been turned into a statue. His head was pointed down, stuck that way. Then he heard a silent sob.

The yellow striped soldier put his hand on Caboose's shoulder, and said, "It's okay, Caboose. Everything will be fine." Except, it wasn't fine. It would take them a long time to recover and he knew it. The weird thing was though, he didn't feel anything. The fact that his friend was gone was too much and his mind must have just been denying it, because he didn't feel bad at all.

"Well, this sucks." Grif said, quietly. He didn't really know what else to say. Church had been his enemy at first, for years they had been fighting each other in Blood Gulch. He never expected that one day his team would condone to being friends with the enemy. Hell, Sarge seemed like he still wasn't friends with them, but by the way he was completely silent, Grif could tell his sergeant was affected.

"Y-yeah." Donut answered, which was the first thing he said since the recording ended. Grif heard the tremor in his voice, so it was obvious his lightish-red teammate was upset as well.

Wash watched his friends start to show their reactions. It broke his heart more than Epsilon's message. The emotions of Epsilon being gone still hadn't hit him. It was like there was a blank spot in his mind, and he refused to process this loss. He was mostly worried about Caboose. He knew that the blue valued Church a lot. He remembered when he was depressed because Carolina and Church had left them alone. Of course, Freckles made him feel better, but that was him just denying his feelings.

"Well, I think we should start to call for help. The UNSC will be faster than Hargrove was, most likely." Wash suggested. It was all he could say, considering if he said anything relating to Church then he would surely break. Epsilon was his friend too, after all.

"What the Hell, Wash? Church is gone. Why do you care if we're saved or not?!" Tucker practically screamed at him. _Ouch._ Tucker really didn't care to be saved? Wash's emotions finally appeared, and it was bad. He walked away into the forest, causing Tucker to sigh. Maybe he shouldn't have said that.

"What do we do now?" Doc asked, feeling completely useless in this situation. Usually, he would suggest they breathe deeply, or just to be calm, but now, it seemed nothing would work. No one responded.

A few minutes passed, and Wash returned, looking a bit more composed than when he left.

"There's a ship coming to get us. Say goodbye to Chorus, I guess. We should o meet up with Kimball and all the lieutenants." Wash advised. Tucker was still angry. Why was Wash not upset? Did Epsilon mean anything to him or was he just another dumb AI? It didn't make sense.

"Yeah, we should do that. But we have to find Carolina first. She still hasn't-Wait." Tucker felt a presence in his mind. It wasn't Epsilon, though. It was the feeling of fear. _Theta._

A small pink-ish hologram appeared in front of him. It _was_ Theta.

"Theta! Is there any sign of Epsilon? Is he still alive?" Wash rushed through his sentence. Maybe there was hope after all. Caboose immediately moved his head towards Theta. Was his best friend okay?

"No. But the rest of us are here." Theta advised. At least the rest of the AIs were okay. Wash was disappointed, and Caboose looked down. Church really was gone.

All the AIs appeared; Sigma, Eta, Iota, Delta, Omega, and Gamma. No Epsilon, though. After a few seconds, they all disappeared.

"You remember in his message, he said they would be here." Tucker didn't use Church's name, which Wash took note of.

"Yeah. I'm going to go look for Carolina. You guys head to where Kimball and everyone else is. I'll catch up." Wash advised, and started walking.

It took him half an hour, but he found Carolina. She was sitting against a tree, her knees pulled up against her chest, staring blankly. There were tear tracks on her cheeks, obviously she'd been crying.

"We're heading towards Kimball's ship. Come on." Wash reached out his hand, an offer to help her stand up. She took it, and they walked silently towards where the reds and blues were.


	3. Chapter 3

Kimball and the lieutenants were standing around, waiting for an explanation as to why their red and blue friends were so upset. Kimball walked over to Wash and Carolina.

"What the fuck is going on? Everyone's so silent and upset, what happened?" Kimball was genuinely confused as to why not her friends were cheering instead of being silent and/or crying inside their helmets. They beat the Chairman, what did they have to be upset about? Thoughts raced through her mind. _What if the Chairman was alive? Did he survive?_ She hoped that wasn't that case, but if it wasn't then why were they upset?

"I think you should all get near Tucker. The-there's a message." Carolina's voice faltered. She really didn't have any desire to see Epsilon say goodbye again, but Kimball and the others needed to know. Tucker looked away from Theta, him logging off.

"Can you take Ch-," Tucker cleared his throat.

"I mean, the AIs? I don't want to watch the message again." He corrected himself. It was really going to be hard getting used to all the thoughts being gone from his head, but he would deal with it. It was just a reminder of what wasn't there anymore. He had grown used to Church's calculations in his head, even if it did keep him awake most nights.

"Alright." Carolina walked over to Tucker, and they moved the AIs to her storage unit. The lieutenants, Dr Grey, and Kimball all stood in front of Carolina.

"Hey D, can you-can you play Epsilon's message?" Carolina stuttered. She didn't want to do this again.

"Acknowledged. Playing message…" The message started playing, and by the end of it, the soldiers of Chorus were all silent. They had the same reaction as the reds and blues. Kimball wasn't the closest to Church, and neither were the lieutenants, but that message hit home with them. Losing an ally, whether they were close or not, was hard. Church mentioning Doyle especially hit them. Doyle did the same thing that Church did, he sacrificed himself for them.

Kimball walked over to Carolina. "I'm sorry." She sighed. It wasn't a lot, but it was something. She couldn't imagine what it was like for her to lose the only thing closest to family that she had.

"How long until the rescue ship gets here?" Tucker asked Wash. He really just wanted to get off this damn planet. There were too many people that had died on Chorus, and he didn't want to be in the same place that he lost his best friend.

"Probably a few hours. I don't know." Wash answered. Wash still didn't feel any emotion. He hadn't cried, he hadn't even let tears fall. Losing Church just didn't seem to have affected him and that really worried him.

Tucker nodded. At least he wouldn't have to spend another full day on Chorus. The sooner he got off of the planet, the better.

 **Six Hours Later**

Carolina, Wash, Kimball, the lieutenants, and the rest of the reds and blues were all standing around or sitting down by the time one of the UNSC's ships landed by them. Everyone got on, and in another six hours, they were at the UNSC headquarters. As soon as they got to the UNSC's Headquarters, Tucker rushed off to their labs. Everyone just shrugged it off, but Wash had an idea of what he was going to do, and he supported it.

Tucker sat in the labs, being confused over all of the technical stuff that came with research. The AIs helped him as much as they could, but he didn't understand a lot of it. He decided he needed someone smarter than him. He used his radio to call Simmons in, which he hesitantly consented to doing.

"How the Hell do I do this, Simmons? I need to find a way to bring Church back. I really believe it's possible. It has to be." Tucker whispered the last part. He was starting to be upset again. Simmons sighed. He really didn't know what to do either, and that made him feel worse.

"I...I don't know, Tucker. I'm sorry, but I don't know how to help you. Maybe you should ask the AIs?" He suggested.

"No shit. I already did that. They're trying to find any remains left of Church, but so far, no luck. He _was_ memory. And he's gone now, so there's no way to recover him." Tucker really had no idea how to bring his friend back. He knew there was a way though, and he would find out no matter what.

"What the fuck do we do, then?" Simmons started to get upset as well. Church was his friend too, even if they didn't have a lot of conversations. Just like with Grif, Church had started out as an enemy to him, but he got used to the smartass AI being around. Without him, it seemed as though a puzzle piece was missing from their puzzle of a team.

"I don't know!" Tucker yelled. Simmons just left the room, not wanting to be the subject of the aqua soldier's anger.

"What's he doing in there?" Carolina asked, getting up to go into the labs. Simmons put a hand on her chest, stopping her.

"He's really angry, maybe it's not the best idea to go in there." He suggested. Carolina pushed past him, and walked towards and into the labs. She didn't care if Tucker was angry, she could handle it. When she got inside the labs, Tucker had his helmet off, with both of his hands supporting his head's weight.

"I can't bring him back. There's no way. He really is gone." Tucker whispered, unmoving. Carolina sighed, taking her helmet off. She hadn't taken it off since they'd left for Earth, so it was refreshing.

"Tucker, what are you trying to do? How can I help you with this?" Carolina desperately wanted to help him. She wanted Church back too, and she would do everything in her power to at least recover some version of him. Even if he didn't have all of the same memories, it would still be something to have him back in some way.

"I don't know! I want to bring Church back, I want to find out a way to maybe combine the AIs? I don't know what the Hell to do. I just want to do something." Tucker wasn't crying, but he was undoubtedly on the verge of tears. He remembered how pissed he was when Church and Carolina left them in the middle of a canyon on Chorus. The fact that they didn't say goodbye really bothered him, and even though he was angry at him when he returned, he was also relieved. Wash holding up the team on his own was...frustrating, to say the least. Right now, he wished he didn't know where Church was. At least he would've had hope that he would come back.


End file.
